The man who had almost hit Ivy with his SUV stood on the pavement for a long moment, watching her thin coat disappear around the corner of the brick wall.

Ivy thought her shift was over. She had finished scrubbing the baseboards in the guest wing and was gathering her coat to leave for her small rented room across town—a privilege Stella allowed only because local zoning laws made live-in maid quarters strictly optional.

Before she reached the back door, Stella intercepted her in the hallway.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Stella’s voice cut through the shadows like ice.

“My shift ended at eleven, ma'am,” Ivy said, her voice tight with exhaustion. “I’m heading out.”

“Your shift ends when I say it ends,” Stella replied coldly. “You left smudges on the glass table in the sunroom. As punishment for your negligence, you will spend the next hour cleaning the courtyard stones. By hand. Without gloves.”

Ivy stared at her in disbelief. “It’s freezing outside. There’s frost on the ground.”

“Then I suggest you hurry up,” Stella said, her eyes narrowing. “Do not move from those courtyard bricks until every inch is scrubbed. If I look out my window and see you standing before I wake up tomorrow, consider yourself fired with no reference.”